One of the great mysteries of comics which we enjoy exploring here at Stately Beat Manor is Platinum Studios. This long running “publisher” has been the recipient of glowing profiles over the years, its business model hailed as “genius”, despite the fact Platinum never actually published anything for nearly a decade of its existence. Getting the he Cowboys and Aliens movie — based on a Platinum property — produced was the holy grail for owner Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, (above, far left) and now that it’s finally come out, to middling box office, he’ll probably spend the next decade spinning out its success, just as he did with MEN IN BLACK in the 90s. Before Platinum, you seem Rosenberg was the head of Malibu Comics and before that Sunrise Distributors, both businesses which had “interesting” histories. HOwrver, getting a producer credit on the MEN IN BLACK film after finding an obscure comic to sell to Hollywood, made Rosenberg a “MAde” man in Hollywood terms. In addition, there has been much outcry over the years over creators who signed away all the rights to their work to Platinum, only to see it all go into a dark hole of development.

Yet, over the last few years, despite many pactings, partnerings and acquisitions, Platinum’s finances have not been not so great — you can see them in their public filings as a penny stock — until COWBOYS & ALIENS got made.
At any rate, Platinum seems to have mastered the “comics to movies” model while hardly producing any comics, such an efficient, waste-free model that we’re surprised more people haven’t adopted it. With the actual existence of the C&A movie, the publishing arm of Platinum seems to have come to a close as well. In June of this year, VP of Development Dan Forcey left the company, prompting one ex-Platinum creator to tweet that the company was dead.

Although battered and bruised by a wave of opprobrium over his work on the New 52, writer Scott Lobdell hasn’t given up, and he’s facing the music — or questions from the internet, as the case may be. After a lengthy layoff from high-profile comics assignments, Lobdell’s work on RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS and TEEN TITANS has met with a….mixed reaction. Or as he reportedly asked Gail Simone, “Why didn’t you TELL me?” In an interview with Comicvine he does cover some of the more controversial aspects of his recent work like…Starfire, the amnesiac sex addict.

There’s been much speculation over the fate of Krypto, Superman’s pet dog who somehow came with him to Earth, in the New 52 — it seems, based on comments at NYCC, that in this grim, no future world of economic collapse, there is no place for a dog in a cape. We’d argue that the opposite is true — the world needs a dog in a cape more than ever! — but it seems that Superman’s dog will only be seen in flashbacks set on Krypton, like the above Gene Ha variant cover to SUPERMAN #3. He’s also been given a grim and gritty makeover as an albino dire wolf, like he wandered over from the set of Game of Thrones.

Those who miss Krypto will definitely enjoy the art that is going up in an auction for writer Steve Niles’s greyhound Sonny, who is undergoing a very expensive treatment for lymphoma. Artists have been donating art for Niles to sell at auction and collect into a print set to raise money for the treatment. Here’s a Bernie Wrightson piece, which really should be in the 31 days of Halloween folder:

Everyone has been linking to the various Halloween goodies at Wonderful Wonderblog and the pictures of old Ben Cooper kids Halloween costumes from the 70s and 80s.

It’s a pretty remarkable sign of the progress in human evolution that we have gone from a holiday based around molded plastic masks of various characters accessorized with garish nylon jumpsuits to a holiday based around Sexy Nurse.